COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — When the Aryan Nations compound was publicly bulldozed eight years ago, many people here thought they had seen the end of a neo-Nazi group that brought notoriety and violence to this part of the Northwest.
But the group has surfaced again, distributing fliers that say it is recruiting members to create a “world headquarters” here.
That has drawn the attention of the human rights activists who helped destroy the old Aryan Nations.
“As best I can find out, it’s two men and they operate out of a P.O. box,” said Tony Stewart, a longtime activist and board member of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations. “There is no way that this compares to when the Aryan Nations had a compound here and drew hundreds for conferences.”
A new Web site lists Coeur d’Alene residents Jerald O’Brien and Michael Lombard as leaders of Aryan Nations. Both hold the title of pastor, which was also used by Richard Butler, who brought the organization to Idaho from California in the 1970s.
O’Brien said a handful of Butler supporters remained in the area after he died in 2004, but kept a low profile. It was the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first black president that prompted them to begin seeking new members.
“He’s one of the greatest recruiting tools we could have asked for,” O’Brien said. “He’s helping to awaken the eyes of a lot of Americans.”
The group distributed fliers in a Coeur d’Alene subdivision. The fliers showed a young girl asking her father: “Why did those dark men take mommy away?”
The fliers were widely denounced in the area.
O’Brien declined to say how many people had joined the white separatist, anti-Semitic group. But he welcomed news attention.
“Any publicity is good publicity,” O’Brien said. “If the enemy is not screaming for our blood, we are not doing a good job.”
In a recent report sent to U.S. law enforcement agencies, the Homeland Security Department warned that right-wing extremists could use the bad state of the U.S. economy and the election of Obama to recruit members. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which follows such groups, reported that there were 926 active hate groups in 2008, up 50 percent from 2000.
Aryan Nations arose out of the Christian Identity religion founded in California in the 1940s. Butler, an aerospace engineer for Lockheed, moved to northern Idaho in the 1970s, bought 20 acres near Hayden Lake, and set up a compound from which he preached. He also hosted annual conventions that drew people from around the country, and held widely publicized marches through downtown Coeur d’Alene that drew many more protesters than participants.
The end for Butler began in 1998, when several of his security guards chased and shot at two local residents whose vehicle had stopped in front of the compound. In a lawsuit pursued by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Coeur d’Alene jury in 2000 found Butler and his group guilty of negligence in the supervision of the guards, and the two local residents were awarded $6.3 million in damages.
Butler was forced to declare bankruptcy and his assets were liquidated. The compound was leveled and turned into a peace park, and Butler lived his remaining days in a home purchased by a supporter in Hayden, Idaho.
The SPLC, based in Montgomery, Ala., isn’t much concerned with this new manifestation of Aryan Nations, said Heidi Beirich, who tracks hate groups.
“The recent fliers that the handful of remaining members passed out is the most we’ve seen AN members do in a long, long time,” she said. “We stomped the Aryan Nations pretty seriously.”
“They’re like cockroaches. You can’t get rid of them,” Beirich said.
The reappearance of the group is unwelcome to the large tourism industry in Coeur d’Alene, which prefers to be known for hosting a huge annual Ironman competition, lavish golf courses, vacation home developments and miles of paved biking trials around its scenic lakes and mountains.
“They are a fringe minority making noise so they can be heard,” said Jonathan Coe, director of the local Chamber of Commerce. “We deplore them.”
The SPLC said there are 11 groups called Aryan Nations in the U.S., including one in nearby Seattle. Stewart said Aryan Nations is something of a brand name for white supremacist groups, and became associated with northern Idaho even though Butler found little support.
“Even when Butler was here, he was not successful in recruiting locally,” Stewart said. “He imported his followers.”
O’Brien disputed that, saying Aryan Nations enjoyed substantial support in the area.
O’Brien, who was an associate of Butler, said he plans to re-establish the annual national conventions of Aryan Nations supporters.
“I promised Pastor Butler on his death bed that I would not let this die,” he said.
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